Collins Cobuild English Grammar (181 page)

  turn, third, word.

  but, fund, must.

ə  (the weak vowel in) butter, about, forgotten.

    
American English vowel sounds

  calm, drop, fall.

  draw, saw.

æ  act, mass, lap.

a
I
  drive, cry, lie.

aiər  fire, tire, buyer.

au  out, down, loud.

auər  flour, tower, sour.

e  met, lend, pen.

ei  say, main, weight.

e
^ər
  fair, care, wear.

I
  fit, win, list.

i  feed, me, beat.

I
^ər
  cheer, hear, clear.

ou  note, phone, coat.

ɔ  more, cord, sort.

ɔi  boy, coin, joint.

  could, stood, hood.

u  you, use, choose.

j
^ər
  sure, pure, cure.

r  turn, third, word.

  but, fund, must.

ə  (the weak vowel in) about, account, cancel.

consonant sounds

b  bed

d  done

f  fit

g  good

h  hat

j  yellow

k  king

l  lip

m  mat

n  nine

p  pay

r  run

s  soon

t  talk

v  van

w  win

x  loch

z  zoo

ʃ  ship

ʒ  measure

ŋ  sing

tʃ  cheap

θ  thin

ð  then

dʒ  joy

Here is a list of the vowel letters:

a e i o u

Here is a list of the consonant letters:

b c d f g h j k l m n p q r s t v w x y z

The consonant
y
, when it falls in the middle or at the end of a syllable, has the status of a vowel and has a range of pronunciations similar to
i
.

Forming plurals of countable nouns

R2
      Information on which nouns have plurals is given in
Chapter 1
(
1.14
to
1.193
).

R3
      In most cases, the plural is written
s
.

hat		hats
tree		trees

R4
      The plural is written
es
after
sh
,
ss
,
x
, or
s
, and it is pronounced
/
I
z/
.